Digvijaya Singh's brother finally faces axe for relentless criticism of Congress high command
AICC Disciplinary Action Committee member Tariq Anwar announced Lakshman Singh's expulsion on Wednesday from the Congress's primary membership 'for a period of six years, with immediate effect, due to his anti-party activities'.
While Digvijaya Singh is one of the titans of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Lakshman Singh has never really been at ease in the party and even left it to join the BJP for a while. The Congress took him back but, insiders say, his relentless criticism recently had made Lakshman Singh an unmanageable liability.
The 70-year-old has been attacking the party leadership since he lost from the Chachoura seat in the 2023 Assembly elections. His criticism has spanned from personal attacks on Gandhi and questioning the party's electoral strategy to the Congress response to the Pahalgam terror attack and its boycott of the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony. He has even refused to support Digvijaya's campaign against EVMs in the state.
On Wednesday, Lakshman Singh remained unreachable for comment.
A senior Congress functionary said: 'When Rahul Gandhi came to Bhopal as part of the party organisation overhaul, he had spoken about senior leaders making nonsensical statements. This (Lakshman Singh's) expulsion signals to all those involved in anti-party activities that such behaviour damaging the party will no longer be tolerated.'
Earlier, a show-cause notice had been served to Lakshman Singh after he commented on some remarks by Rahul Gandhi and brother-in-law Robert Vadra in context of the Pahalgam terrorist attack last month, saying: 'Gandhi and Vadra are immature. The country is suffering the consequences of their immaturity… How long will the Congress have to put up with (their) immaturity?'
He added: 'Rahul Gandhi should think before he speaks, he is the LoP (Leader of the Opposition).'
When the Congress decided to stay away from the Ayodhya Ram Temple inauguration last year, Lakshman Singh said: 'As far as invitation is concerned, what is the meaning of declining it? What message are we sending? When Rajiv Gandhi got it (the locks of the Babri Masjid) unlocked, who are you to decline it? If our leadership keeps such advisors, the results would be the same as they have been so far.'
In December 2023, Lakshman Singh told reporters: 'Rahul Gandhi is just a party worker. He is just an MP. Apart from that, he is nothing. You people too should not highlight Rahul Gandhi so much, nor should we. No one becomes a great leader by birth, one becomes great by his/her actions. Don't consider Rahul Gandhi such a great leader, I don't.'
Even earlier, during protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Lakshman Singh had gone against the party line and advocated acceptance of the legislation, now that it had been passed. 'All parties have expressed their views. More comments, statements on this subject are meaningless. Let's accept it and move on.'
The former Congress MLA also criticised the Congress for failure to fulfill its signature promise of farm loan waivers when in power briefly between 2019 and 2022, demanding that Gandhi apologise to the Madhya Pradesh farmers for the same. 'He should also clarify to them how long it will take for a loan waiver,' Lakshman Singh said.
A seasoned politician, Lakshman Singh has served five terms as MP and three as MLA, establishing his credentials across multiple constituencies.
His political journey began in 1987 from the Raghogarh municipality. Since then, he has won twice from the Raghogarh Assembly seat, before achieving a five-term victory streak from the Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency. One of these times, in 2004, Lakshman Singh won from Rajgarh on the BJP ticket, having shifted to the party.
But the Congress won back the constituency in 2009, defeating Lakshman Singh as the BJP candidate. Soon, Singh was in trouble within the BJP, and in July 2010, was expelled from the party's primary membership after publicly condemning senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari. By January 2013, Singh was back in the Congress fold.
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